history
recounted surviving several camps along with her mother . Due to her age , Ravina said she was forced tohide most of the time . She kept aneye on watch towers , timed the movement of guards and mapped camp layouts to avoid detection . She also said she “ got alittle braver .”
That bravery would prove vital when Ravina and other children being hidden bytheir parents were discovered by agroup of German officers . The children , 28to30ofthem , were taken on atroop transporter toahilltop outside the camp , where the officers berated them as “ lazy slobs ,” she said . Ravina said she lingered asthe guards converged around those first unloaded , and she was able to slip away .
“ AsIwas running , Isaw afigure , a woman ’ sfigure , in ablue cape ,” Ravina said .“ She saw me running and opened her cape .”
The woman took Ravina totothere infirmary where she was eventually reunited with her mother .
Ravina ’ sstory , which was documented inAn Inconvenient Time by director Denny Klein and The Invisible Holocaust : The Story ofRuth Ravina by biographer Marlen Gabriel , took her through the Pionki labor camp and the one atSkarzykso-Kamienna . Her last stop was Czestochowa , where allied bombing allowed for aJanuary 1945 jailbreak byagroup of emaciated women who mustered the energy to overpower alocked gate , she said .
With rags on her feet , having long outgrown her shoes , Ravina said she remembered running east down the road as German soldiers were fleeing west along the roadside gutter .
Twodays later , the surviving women found Russian soldiers . Ravina and her mother later returned toKozienice , where they learned her father had died . She then went to Lodz , where her mother opened asoup kitchen before traveling toSweden , Canada and , in 1948 , the United States .
Once stateside , she graduated from the City College of New York with a sociology degree . She also met Oscar Ravina when her mother urged her to volunteer asanusher for amusic event and heoverheard her speaking fluent Polish . The first time she heard him play the violin , she “ melted like butter ,” she said in2016 .
MILLION DOLLAR LISTING This historic home is currently onthe market for $ 1.25M .
“ My jaw dropped ,” she told the Yiddish Book Center . “ I had never heard playing like that before . He had the most gorgeous sound — that ’ swhat he was known for , the sound .”
Amusical prodigy seven years her elder , Oscar Ravina was also born in Poland but was taken byhis father to Russia at the onset of the war . Trained at the Warsaw Conservatory , the Saint Petersburg Conservatory inLeningrad , the Mozarteum in Salzburg and more , he came to America in1950 to study at the Manhattan School ofMusic .
He worked at Radio City Music Hall before joining the New York Philharmonic in1963 and performing with the New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensembles . He taught at Dartmouth College and Montclair State University where he was named professor emeritus and had former students establish the Ruth and Oscar Ravina Talent Award Scholarship . He also co-founded the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York and the Ravina String Quartet and was the concertmaster of the New York Virtuosi .
The couple ’ slongtime home was built in1927-28 by the original owner
Joseph Henry Scranton and his wife Clare Wallace Ellis . Though Scranton designed the home himself , hesold it for $ 45,000 following the May 1930 death ofEllis .
Featuring arenovated , eat-in kitchen with stainless steel appliances and quartz countertops , the home has recent updates and 20th-century details . The large living room has a custom fireplace mantle , original wall sconces and arched French doors leading toan adjacent sunroom . The primary suite has asitting room , ensuite bathroom and walk-in closets . It sits on athird ofanacre about midway between Watchung Plaza and the Upper Montclair train station .
The home ’ ssecond owner was Morrison Montford ofChicago , according toThe Montclair Times . Morrison was the chief engineer for the Westinghouse X-ray Company in New York and racked uppatents for gadgets ranging from aircraft speedometers toamplifier systems . His namesake son became aU . S . Army Air Forces pilot and served with the 450th Bombardment Group during World WarII . n
PROVIDED BY FRONT DOOR PHOTOGRAPHY / KELLER WILLIAMS NJ METRO GROUP
24 MAY 2024 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE